Updated: NVIDIA Releases Fix For Recent Buggy Game Ready Driver Update Plaguing GeForce Users

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Last week, it was reported that some gamers were having problem with GeForce Game Ready 397.31 WHQL-certified drivers, which marked the first release to drop support for 32-bit operating systems and Fermi-based GPU hardware. Despite the streamlined package with old cruft expunged, many GeForce GTX 1060 owners complained that the drivers resulted in their PCs experiencing reboot loops during install.

The issue has been well-documented by users on the official GeForce forums, and NVIDIA has now provided an official response to those that have encounter problems. NVIDIA Customer Care representative ManuelGuzmanNV wrote:

We will be releasing a new driver very soon with a fix for this. I understand how inconvenient it is. For now, if you hit this issue, do the following:

a) In the device manager, disable and then re-enable your GPU. This will reload the driver.

or

b) Revert back to driver 391.35 until our new driver is released with a fix.

While the issue has primarily affected GeForce GTX 1060 owners, there are reports of the GeForce GTX 1050 and GeForce GTX 1080 being affected in the 15-page thread on NVIDIA's GeForce support website.

The Game Ready 397.31 WHQL drivers added support for Vulkan 1.1, new sample rates (32 kHz, 88.2 kHz, and 176.4 kHz) for HD audio output for HDMI on all GeForce GPUs, and updated SLI profiles for Descenders, Frostpunk, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 and Far Cry 5.

We’ll let you know once a new, fully-functional driver is available to download. But for now, we suggest that you follow NVIDIA’s advice and revert back to the Game Ready 391.35 WHQL drivers until that time arrives.

Updated 5/4/2018 @ 8:00AM EST
NVIDIA has posted GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 397.55 which resolves the reboot issues. The release notes are as follows:

  • After driver installation, Device Manager may report Code 43 error on a few GTX 1060 cards models.
  • Netflix playback may occasionally stutter.
  • Added support for Microsoft Surface Book notebooks.
  • Windows 10: Driver may get removed after PC has been left idle for an extended period of time.

You can download the new driver right here.